The Haunted House 1
by SilentChild187
Summary: Everyone in Burgess village heard of the Haunted House on Nightmare Hill by the frozen pond, where it was rumoured that a dark spirit that drowned three hundred years ago dominated there, and caused anyone who dared to come close to fall into its icy depths. But the House was another matter. Summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

**The Haunted House**

 **Summary : Everyone in Burgess village heard of the Haunted House on Nightmare Hill by the frozen pond, where it was rumoured that a dark spirit that drowned three hundred years ago dominated there, and caused anyone who dared to come close to fall into its icy depths. But the House was another matter. Once, three young and healthy men went in, and one came out after three days, already mad and insane, mumbling pitch black or some other. Another time, a young girl and her friend went in on a dare, and a few days later they came back out, completely zombie like and unresponsive with dark sunken skin and circles.**

 **And everyone who went close heard the wails and cries of pain and agony.**

 **Chapter One**

 **Author's Note : Hello. I'm sorry for not updating my other stories, but I need a break. And hello, I have a life. And my own stories. So from now on, I will update A Very Mixed Year…once a week, maybe once in two weeks if I'm tired, and the Shadow Disrupter will be updated sometime in the last week of June or the early week of July. The Crazy Love Story will be updated next week hopefully, and this will be updated next week. What am I missing? Ah, and the Trickster one will be updated probably two weeks later. I don't have inspiration for that yet. So… that's that. R &R! **

**Oh, and BTW, North, Sandy, Tooth and Bunny are normal teenagers here. Sometimes I really think up the weirdest ideas for fanfiction. No offence to those who have this idea also. Hurrah to my second**

 **So here we go. I'll see you again down there. And this chapter is used to introduce the characters, the real stuff comes later.**

 **"** Tooth, what is your costume?" St. Nicholas North, nicknamed North or Santa Claus (he did look to that part) boomed as he walked into Toothiana's purple and colourful room. Said girl was dashing around, mumbling and fiddling with her closet. "Did you have too much sugar again?"

Tooth was a girl that went hyper when she ate too much sugar, which was the case now. She flitted like a hummingbird, ignoring North completely. "Where did I put my wings…ah there, oh no, what…teeth! My precious teeth!" she moved from one thing to another. North sighed, grabbed her frail and petite shoulders, and turned her to face him. She let out a squeak, large violet magenta eyes widening. "Oh! I'm sorry North, I didn't see you there!" she dashed into her dressing room, shouting, "I'm changing now, can you wait outside please?" North did, lumbering out to see Bunny and Sandy waiting. Bunny, true to his words, wore long flexible bunny ears and giant rabbit feet. Grey fur covered his entire body, but the paranoid boy kept his boomerangs with him, making it an odd combination. "Oh, look! The Easter Bunny's here!" North shouted. Kids turned their heads. A kid nearby snorted. "It's Halloween, not Easter, Bunny,"

Sandy wore a golden outfit, completed with his long sand whips that he kept with him at all times. He had 'woven' a golden cloud underneath his feet.

North himself wore a jolly red jiggling hat, coupled with a red Santa Claus suit and an empty bag that he was going to use to fill with candy. "It never gets old," he sighed, turning to the other 'Guardians', as they had dubbed themselves.

"What? What do you mean? What never gets old? Getting candy? Hiding candy? You have to be more specific, mate," Bunny said.

"Woah, Bunny, what got your tail in a twist?" Tooth zoomed over. She was wearing giant glossy fairy wings and a tight purple jumpsuit.

"Nothing." the two sixteen year olds chorused.

The four of them were known as the 'Guardians'. They entertained the children, played with the children, cared for the children, and did everything to help the Burgess kids. They planted flowers all over for the kids to admire, they found their eggs and hid them again for those poorer ones who could not afford to have an Easter egg hunt, they got candy on Halloween and distributed them to those with less sweets (Tooth was not so ecstatic with that idea). The children adored them.

"Alright, so do we now go to trick or treat?" North suggested, and they set on their way. But suddenly, what seemed like a perfect, calm and happy night filled with ghosts and pumpkins grew quiet. Absolutely silent. Not a single sound.

Until it was shattered, a second later, by a single ear splitting scream of pure, undiluted fear.

 **Author's Note : Wow, I seem to** ** _love_** **cliffies. Don't you think so? So don't you worry, I will make more of them. See you all…some time later.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

 **Author's Note : Hello again. Guess I got the chapter down earlier, so…never mind. It doesn't matter. Nothing to say here.**

 **Wait…I would like to thank the reviewers. Happy chapter to you all, and I will try to make less cliffhangers.**

 **P.S. This might be a bit shorter than usual.**

 **"** What…what was that?" Tooth stuttered. Bunny had his paws—sorry, _hands_ — over his sensitive ears. Sandy, for the first time, looked grim, and North was frowning until his creased brows were as wrinkled as a crumpled paper bag. "Whatever it is, we have to help them," the mute golden boy signed with his sparkling golden sand that he produced out of nowhere. Bunny was more cautious, though he was wary. "Woah, slow down, mate.I know we need to help that person, whoever he or she is, but we don't even—" he was interrupted by yet another horrible shriek coming from the east.

"Blast it. Let's move now," he changed his sentence, and literally hopped like a bunny towards the general direction of the scream. The three others followed, North holding his deadly double sabre swords he got for his sixteenth birthday, Sandy wielding his abnormally long but not to be underestimated sand whips he created out of his 'magical' sand (the other Guardians had no idea how he'd got an endless supply of golden sand, and how he weaved them into solid golden floating shapes), and lastly Tooth with her wings fluttering nervously, as if they had their own mind and were itching to go after the victim.

They walked slash raced after Bunny, just in time to hear some mild cussing from a very humiliated Easter Bunny on the ground.

"Watch your tongue!" Tooth squawked like a mother parrot at the grumbling Guardian.

"Aren't you lot more concerned at why a Guardian of all people would be on the ground?" a cold and chilling voice drawled, high up in the trees. "After all that I've heard off you, you don't really seem…at all the Guardians." this time, the voice echoed everywhere, forcing the Guardians to whirl around, only just realising they were standing at the edge of the feared Burgess pond. Sandy looked up and gasped, for a young boy who looked to be fourteen was staring at them, a smirk on his face. But what was startling was his dark, dark hair, inky and black as a night with no stars. It was streaked with crimson scarlet, the same shade of ruby blood. His skin was ashen and white, the pale sickish colour you saw on the skin of corpses. His eyes were pure black voids that sucked every good emotion, every drop of happiness, joy, wonder, hope and lots more. Everything…gone. The black eyes were malicious and evil, filled with hatred and death. No, his eyes were lifeless. Completely flat and emotionless without mercy. Striking horror and fear. The Guardians gasped as they saw him and his eyes. Tooth backed away slowly, eyes wide. North brandished his swords, Sandy prepared his whips, and Bunny placed a hand on his boomerangs. The boy only smiled, a smile full of evil. No, he was radiating evil, from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. "My, all the Guardians in the same place! A sight I'd thought I'd never see…" the boy said, swinging down from the tree. He sighed, as if in disappointment. "But, ah…how rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Jack Frost, at your service, Guardians," he gave them a mocking bow, sweeping his arms elegantly. It was then the Guardians noticed the shepherd crook he held, with a G shaped end. It was covered with glistening black crystals.

"Oh, hello Jack. Um, would you mind telling us if you've heard the screams from just now?" North asked, though his belly shouted at him to run away.

Jack gave him a sinister grin. "Of course I did."

North's throat was dry. "And would you telling us which direction did you hear it?"

Jack chuckled. "It would be my pleasure to help you, Guardians, in fact I saw what was going on,"

North had a bad feeling about this.

"Of course, how can I not know when that child's delightful screams comes right here?"

 **Author's Note : Well, that was that. Guess I got some inspiration down. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Gabriel (aka you know…), the piece of writing I was working on earlier at school was this exact story.** ** _I'm doing you a favor, and you know it._**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

 **Author's Note : I'm starting to love this story myself… let's hope it doesn't end badly, since I have several ideal chapters in my mind. Here is a short chapter to everyone who loves ROTG out there! Remember, R &R…**

Jack waved his hand, and darkness seeped out, obscuring the four Guardians' sight. Then it cleared, and the Guardians gasped in fear and horror at the sight in front of them : even in the complete darkness, they could see outlines of children, young or close to adulthood, were all trapped in small metal cages. All of them had a slightly crazed look to their eyes, which were black voids like Jack's, only said boy's was much more dead and deadlier.

"Fear, that's right," a voice that vibrated throughout the vast dark cavern without a single ounce of light sent a chill down the four Guardians' spines. Sandy cautiously magicked up some glittering sand whips that provided a tiny spark of light. Up close, the children looked even more lifeless, they just sat there with their legs crossed, not moving and blinking slowly like a zombie.

"Who are you, and why have you brought us here?" North demanded, trying his best to keep his brave facade, while Tooth was fluttering around trying to get the children to talk and cheer up to no avail, they could be corpses if not for the slow and hypnotic rise and fall of their chests.

"Oh, I think you've heard about me," the voice, which the Guardians agreed it wasn't Jack, it was way more creepier, continued. "The monster who hides under children's beds, the monster who preys on fears, the monster who is also known as Pitch Black, Boogeyman," the person, now known as Pitch Black, snarled like the feral monster he was.

The Guardians did indeed knew Pitch Black, for he was one of the mythical legends like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman, which they believed in, even at their age. But they didn't fear him.

"So?" Bunny challenged. "Why bring us here?"

Pitch seemed surprised. "You believe me, but not fear me…" he mused slowly. "How interesting, you Guardians. But interesting won't save your happy human lives. Jack, take them to the Horror Chambers,"

The dark boy, whom they came to the conclusion that he was also one of the children that had been bewitched (though the others were in cages and he was not), suddenly appeared in front of them. "Here, let me show you your chambers, which you will be staying there for a long time," he said, chaining the now not struggling Guardians and gliding them deeper into the cavern. "What does a long time equal to?" North asked, feeling queasy. "My, you lot do ask many questions. Hm, for you four, maybe 75 years, give or take," he replied with amusement. Bunny suddenly spoke up. "How long did it take _you_ to submit to that monster?"

Jack chuckled darkly. " 200 hundred years," he lapsed into silence, leaving the Guardians to wonder if he was tricking them or not.

They continued, not sure they were going up or down now. If anything, the darkness seemed to grow, enveloping them in a threatening way that created new goosebumps onto the old ones.

They came to an abrupt stop, causing North to bump into Bunny, Bunny into Tooth and Tooth onto Sandman.

They couldn't help themselves, they laughed. Even in the grim, scary and frightening situation, they laughed, a sound of mirth. Pure, innocent, untainted mirth, however small it was. The darkness seemed to freeze around, then started to seep away. Gasps could be heard as the children reawaken, some cringing in fear, but most of them in hope, and Bunny smiled, causing the tiniest bit of light to appear. Children clapped and laughed and marvelled at the light, but more cheered in awe at the sand Sandy made into sand animals.

They were so distracted they almost missed the cry of rage from Pitch, he growled, and the children whimpered and returned to their first state. Sandy caused the sand animals to disparate. But now the Guardians had hope that the children could return to their original.

 _Hope._

 **Now, that wan't a cliff hanger, was it?**


	4. Author's Note (Don't worry)

Chapter Four

 **Author's Note : Okay, I'll make this quick. I am preparing for my Graduation Dinner performance and the Annual Concert, and to top it off we have homework and other stuff to do, so the end result is me not having time to write. Bu I am not abandoning these fanfictions, I will simply restart them again on the summer holidays.**

 **See you on July!**

 **-Sierra**


	5. Chapter 4 (not the author's note one)

**Chapter Four (the real one, not the author's note one)**

 **Yes, I know I didn't update…So here we go. A chapter for wonderful Jack Frost.**

Pitch waved at Jack, and the black crimson haired boy came over, and glared at the four Guardians, making them shrink a little as he marched them away, bringing them into the deepest and darkest part of Pitch's lair—the dungeon specially made to trap them, it seemed.

After throwing them in, Jack grinned a feral grin, and bolted the door thrice, then stood outside, motionless, as the Guardians could see from the bars.

"Pitch is very clever, he sent that lass knowing we won't hurt him," North whispered, equivalent to normal volume to the others.

Bunny snorted. "Didn't you see the dark look in his eyes, North? He's corrupted, mate, and we can't do a thing about that."

"What do you propose? Leave him in that state? We are Guardians, we are responsible for bringing joy to children. Perhaps Jack is just brainwashed or something by Pitch—" Tooth suggested, but was broken off by Bunny saying, "We've never seen or heard of him before, sheila, be realistic!"

Sandy waved to get everyone's attention. Nobody noticed, of course. Grumbling (in his mind), he yanked at the trailing end of North's costume, and he turned to see Sandy. "What is it?"

 **Italics mean sign language.**

 _"_ _Calm down. Jack is listening."_

Everyone turned to look at the pale boy, who was leaning on the bars, smirking at them. "How nice of you to discuss my origins," he said, folding his arms. "You know, if you guessed correct, I will aid in helping you escape."

Three of four Guardians gasped. "Are you sure about that?" Tooth asked, and Bunny smacked her on the arm. "He's offering help if we play his game, Tooth, don't you get it?" Turning to Jack, his eyes narrowed, he then said,"You must be pretty confident about that, then."

Jack widened his eyes innocently, and if not for the sadistic gleam in his eye, the Guardians would've thought he was a normal kid. Minus the looks. "If I do say so. If you guessed correct, then you will escape, I can guarantee that. If not, then…"his eyes grew more malicious by the second, and the Guardians shivered from both the cold that radiated from him and the pure darkness in his voice, "Then I will get to play with you before Pitch turns you, really, really slowly. And trust me, it won't be pretty." His icy gaze passed over the Guardians, before he sat down, cross-legged and casual. "So, you will get to ask me five yes no questions in total. After that, you will need to guess. And I promise I am telling you the truth. "

"I'll go first," Tooth said. "Uh, Jack…were you born with the black and crimson hair?"

"Nope. I'll be extra nice, and give you some more information : I had brown hair and white hair before." The Guardians looked at each other, confused, save Sandy, who had a look of thoughtfulness on his face.

"I'll be second, if that's all right for you guys?" Bunny asked, then after receiving nods of yes, he said, "Are you corrupted, or were you born this way?"

"You do know that isn't a yes no question, right?"

Silence.

A sign. "Ah, alright then. I was corrupted. I certainty _wasn't_ born this way."

 _"_ _I'll go next. Jack…are you human or not?"_

The others gasped, except for Jack, who studied Sandy. "As a matter of fact, Sandman, I am not human. I was."

The Guardians gasped again, excluding Sandy, who looked like he anticipated the answer.

"We should let Sandy ask again, should we?" North said, and Tooth and Bunny agreed.

Sandy considered. _"Are you older than three hundred years old?"_

Jack tilted his head. "Yes. But just barely."

"Jack, can we have a second…to discuss our options? After that, North will ask his question and we will guess."

"Of course. In fact, I am generous, so you can have an entire two minutes to discuss whatever you need to discuss." Jack waved them away.

The Guardians huddled together. 'So, he's not human, which means he might be a vengeful ghost—"

"Tooth, are you off your rocket? He's obviously a dark spirit, like Pitch!"

 _"_ _No. Listen. He said he was corrupted, which means he was a good spirit before Pitch turned him. He dropped a lot of hints actually, indicating he is controlled by Pitch and his Nightmares. We have to find a way to let him remember his old spirit life."_

North nodded. "Yes, Sandy. I'll—"

"Time's up, Guardians, unfortunately," Jack called, and they walked to the bars. He winked. 'By the way, you should trust what you've come up with."

"Anyway…last question, North!"

"Did you have any siblings?"

Jack's eyes flickered, for the briefest moment, into a clear, crystal blue like rippling ice, filled with mischief. White started to creep across the black red hair. Sandy took note of it.

"Yes. One sister. Her name…her name was Emma. The sweetest girl you could've ever imagined. Two more sisters, and on more brother afterwards. One of my other sisters was bright and fiery, the other a Daughter of the Sun. And my brother was a dragon tamer, started off scrawny, but ended up as the first dragon tamer, and the rider of a Night Fury." This time, icy blue completely claimed Jack's soulless black eyes, and white covered his entire head, overtaking the black and red. In a matter of seconds, a completely different person stood in front of them, a fourteen year old boy with snowy white hair, and playful ice blue eyes. A wooden staff, patterned with blue frost fern patterns that swirled, was in his grip.

The others were taken aback with his transformation.

Then he spoke. It was light and cheerful, without malicious intent. "Well, turns out you guessed who I am. Congratulations, Guardians!"

The world went black.

 **A longer (not really) chapter for all readers. I suppose this story is gonna end soon…not. There's still the confrontation with Pitch. Well, I'll be back with more. Until next time!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

 **I reread that part…it sounds awkward to me…bleh. It was unedited. All of them are unedited. Maybe I should get a beta reader.**

 **Thanks for reviewing, ThePinkInPinkie (Guest). You make my day.**

 **Hey, did anyone read William Joyce's Guardians of Childhood series?**

 **Short chapter ahead.**

"Now where are we?" Bunny groaned, feeling a bump on his head on where he had collided with the stony ground.

They were definitely out of Pitch's lair, but this didn't look much better. A desolate place, that part was obvious. Darkness and grim seemed to hang at every corner of the stone walls.

"Why, this is Pitch's abandoned lair in Germany, of course!" Jack said, perching on his staff somehow.

The Guardians shot to their feet. "What happened to you?" Bunny asked.

Jack grinned, completely carefree. "I was turned dark two centuries ago," he explained. "When Pitch captured me, along with a few other new spirits. They managed to escape, of course, in the process leaving me." Jack's expression soured into one of disdain. "That was the tipping point, and I turned into one of Pitch's puppets. I do try to wrestle myself out of his control, but…" he shrugged, as if indicating he was helpless. "It's no use. Nightmares patrolling the perimeter, the children that he managed to turn as well, and also the occasional Fearling here and there."

Then he brightened considerably. "Enough about me. Where do you need to go next?"

North stared at the completely different teen. "Er…Burgess…?" It turned out more of a question than anything.

"Burgess. Stay tight, then, and don't scream!" Without warning, Jack launched himself into the air, and the Guardians gave a yelp. They were flying.

Bunny was downright screaming his head off, shouting curses at the white haired spirit, whilst Sandy was sitting upon one of his golden sand clouds, enjoying the sudden and unexpected flight immensely. Tooth was also grinning, her white sparkling teeth revealed openly. North was bouncing at the air currents, whooping. "Faster!" He shouted over the wind. Bunny's eyes bulged wide open-well, wider than they were already.

"Are ya trying ta _kill_ us?" He screamed. "He's a bloody immortal, and we are human!" The others ignored him, though Sandy spared him a pitying glance. Jack grinned tauntingly. "Afraid of a little height, Cottontail?" He ordered the wind to dive forwards, and Bunny clutched North for dear life as Jack performed a series of airborne patterns. The wind nudged them teasingly, and turned a loop de loop. North pumped his fist into the air, shouting, "Yeah!". Bunny was too startled to say anything, Sandy was smiling, and Tooth was hovering around, darting energetically.

And so the Guardians began their journey back to Burgess, unaware of the threat that awaited them below.

 **School starts soon. Not much time to write left.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

 **Not much of a reaction on the last chapter. Ah, well…R &R!**

The Guardians touched down not so lightly at the edge of the Burgess pond. Bunny groaned again as he tripped over a rock and fell face down into the grass. Jack held back a a chuckle as he landed gracefully like a cat once the wind dropped them.

It was as if no time had passed between them being kidnapped and returning to Burgess.

"Thank you for rescuing us," Tooth said, genuine gratitude in her voice as she dusted herself off.

Jack gave her a smile, and Tooth swooned as his pearly whites. "No, thank _you_ for reminding me who I am. When you need help, just whisper into the wind, and I'll be there. So…goodbye for now."

With that, he leapt into the air, and the Guardians watched as the blue speck grew smaller and smaller in the night sky, until it could no longer be seen.

They turned around, and prepared to go back to trick or treating or sharing the fabulous story to youngsters when a shadow shifted. Then another. And another.

The four of them formed a little circle back to back. There was no doubt it was the shadowy horses also known as Nightmares, and they were aching for a fight.

North was experienced with fighting, since he fought on the streets for scraps and bits when he was young. In fact, he had kept two double-bladed sword hidden in his voluminous sleeves, and now he drew them out and prepared to fight.

Bunny wasn't to be outdone as he reached for his boomerangs and his secret explosive eggs, something he invented to stun.

Tooth learned fighting before, and she had been quite ruthless…if you counted knocking down the teacher because his teeth were all yellow ruthless.

Sandy had summoned his sand whips out of nowhere, and by now the rest had learned not to question where they came from. The Nightmares backed away uncertainly.

"Jack," North whispered under his breath. They waited with baited breath as the Nightmares regrouped and started charging.

Nothing happened. Clearly Jack wasn't coming for reasons unknown.

"Bloody Frost," Bunny muttered, whipping his boomerang. It sliced through the ranks of the Nightmares, leaving a brown trail as it returned to his paw.

North slashed and stabbed at the oncoming horses. They either dissipated or turned tail and fled.

Tooth was no more than a green blur and she punched, kicked and dodged whenever she could. It wasn't as efficient as the others' weapons, but it still caused significant damage. Tooth mad a mental note to put a switchblade into her pocket the next time she got her hands on one.

Sandy was literally glowing. He rose from his golden cloud, his long sand whips bearing down on the Nightmares and turning them into the same sand that covered his entire being. The Nightmares shied away from it.

Yet their combined efforts were not enough. The Nightmares were endless, and they were relentless. Soon the Nightmares were winning, slowly overpowering the Guardians. For all their might and strength, they were human.

Tooth fell, staggering from a surprise kick from a Nightmare. The Nightmares swarmed her, covering her before the Guardians could reach them.

"Toothy!" North shouted, in his panic more Nightmares fell as he created a path amongst the sea of black to where his friend was being swarmed. "Toothiana!"

A sudden blue glow emanated from the middle of the swarm. It grew and grew, joined by bursts of red, orange, yellow, green and pink, until the tendrils of light burst from the very core, resulting in a brilliant explosion that rocked Earth.

The Nightmares were destroyed, or turned into the beautiful golden sand of Sandy's. It was a sight to behold.

And from the middle, crouched four figures, radiating warmth and sunlight, breeziness and frost.


End file.
